1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to ambidextrous thumb safeties for handguns and, more particularly, to a thumb safety disposed on the right side of the handgun which is guided and retained by the frame during pivotal movement.
2. Description of Related Art
A left-hand thumb safety, disposed on the right side of a handgun and interconnected with the conventional left-hand thumb safety is described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,492,748, issued to A. D. Swenson. The two thumb safeties include interconnecting shafts disposed about a mutual pivot axes to insure correspondence of movement between the pair of thumb safeties. Retention of the left-handed thumb safety is achieved by a tang captured within a slot disposed in the grip plate mounted on the right side of the handgun. An improvement for retaining the left-hand thumb safety for a handgun is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,414,769 issued to H. W. Mueschke. The sear pin of the handgun extends past the gun frame on the right-hand side to accommodate formation of a slot disposed in the extended part of the sear pin. The left-handed thumb safety includes an arcuate flange engaging the slot in the sear pin, which slot prevents lateral translation of the left-hand thumb safety. In U.S. Pat. No. 4,742,634, issued to A. D. Swenson, guards associated with the left and right hand thumb safeties of a handgun prevent potentially injurious contact between a user's thumb and rearward movement of the slide upon discharge of the handgun.